These are the Sermons of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah the Priest, one of them that dwelt at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:

whether the Gentiles themselves deal so falsely and untruly with their gods - which yet are no gods indeed! But my people hath given over their high honour, for a thing that may not help them.

Why do they roar and cry then upon him, as a lion? They have made his land waste, his cities are so burnt up, that there is no man dwelling in them.

I shall answer them: Where are now thy gods, that thou hast made thee? Bid them stand up, and help thee in the time of need! For look how many cities thou hast, O Judah: so many gods hast thou also.

Wherefore then will ye go to law with me, seeing ye all are sinners against me, sayeth the LORD?

If ye be the people of the LORD, then hearken unto his word: Am I then become a wilderness unto the people of Israel? Or a land that hath no light? Wherefore sayeth my people then, 'We are lords; and we will come no more unto thee'?

But like as a woman faileth her lover, so are ye unfaithful unto me, O ye house of Israel, sayeth the LORD.'"

"O ye shrinking children, turn again, saying, "Lo, we are thine, for thou art the LORD our God!" And so shall I heal your backturnings.

For lo, he cometh down like as a cloud, and his chariots are like a stormy wind: his horsemen are swifter than the Eagle. Woe unto us, for we are destroyed.

Behold, the Heathen give Jerusalem warning, and preach unto her, that her destroyers are coming from far countries. They tell the cities of Judah the same also.

"Nevertheless this shall come upon them because my people is become foolish, and hath utterly no understanding. They are the children of foolishness, and without any discretion. To do evil, they have wit enough: but to do well, they have no wisdom."

For, methink I hear a noise, like as it were of a woman travailing, or one laboring of her first child: Even the voice of the daughter Zion, that casteth out her arms, and swooneth, saying, "Ah woe is me! How sore vexed and faint is my heart, for them that are slain?"

Therefore thought I in myself, "Peradventure they are so simple and foolish, that they understand nothing of the LORD's way, and judgments of our God.

Wherefore a lion out of the wood shall hurt them, and a wolf in the evening shall destroy them. The cat of the mountain shall lie lurking by their cities, to tare in pieces all them that come thereout. For their offenses are many, and their departing away is great.

"Should I then, for all this, have mercy upon thee? Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods. And albeit they were bound to me in marriage, yet they fell to adultery, and hunted harlots' houses.

In the desire of uncleanly lust they are become like the stoned horse: every man neigheth at his neighbour's wife.

"Climb up upon their walls, beat them down, but destroy them not utterly: cut off their branches because they are not the LORD's.

Wherefore thus sayeth the LORD God of Hosts, "Because ye speak such words, behold: The words that are in thy mouth will I turn to fire, and make the people to be wood, that it may consume them.

Their arrows are sudden death; yea, they themselves be very giants.

Fear ye not me, sayeth the LORD? Are ye not ashamed, to look me in the face? Which bind the sea with the sand, so that it cannot pass his bounds: for though it rage, yet can it do nothing; and though the waves thereof do swell, yet may they not go over.

But this people hath a false and an obstinate heart, they are departed and gone away from me.

For among my people are found wicked persons, that privily lay snares and wait for me, to take them and destroy them.

And like as a net is full of birds, so are their houses full of that which they have gotten with falsity and deceit. Hereof cometh their great substance and riches,

hereof are they fat and wealthy, and are run away from me with shameful blasphemies. They minister not the law, they make no end of the fatherless cause, they judge not the poor according to equity.

Horrible and grievous things are done in the land.

Like as a conduit aboundeth in water, even so this city aboundeth in wickedness. Robbery and unrighteousness is heard in her, sorrow and wounds are ever there in my sight.

But unto whom shall I speak, whom shall I warn, that he may take heed? Their ears are so uncircumcised, that they may not hear. Behold, they take the word of God but for a scorn, and have no lust thereto.

And therefore I am so full of thine indignation, O LORD, that I may suffer no longer. "Shed out thy wrath upon the children that are without, and upon all young men. Yea the man must be taken prisoner with the wife, and the aged with the cripple.

Then shall this cry be heard, "Our arms are feeble! Heaviness and sorrow is come upon us, as upon a woman travailing with child!

For they are all unfaithful and fallen away, they hang upon filthy lucre; they are clean brass and iron, for they hurt and destroyed every man.

The bellows are burnt in the fire, the lead is consumed, the melter melteth in vain, for the evil is not taken away from them.

These are the words that God spake unto Jeremiah:

Then come ye, and stand before me in this house, which hath my name given unto it, and say 'Tush, we are absolved quite, though we have done all these abominations.'

What? Think you this house that beareth my name, is a den of thieves? And these things are not done privily, but before mine eyes, sayeth the LORD.

Wherefore then is this people and Jerusalem gone so far back, that they turn not again? They are ever the longer, the more obstinate, and will not be converted.

"How dare ye say then, 'We are wise, we have the law of the LORD among us'? Behold, the deceitful pen of the scribes, setteth forth lies:

The harvest is gone, the Summer hath an end, and we are not helped.

Their tongues are like sharp arrows, to speak deceit. With their mouth they speak peaceably to their neighbour, but privily they lay wait for him.

"Upon the mountains will I take up a lamentation and sorrowful cry, and a mourning upon the fair plains of the wilderness: Namely, how they are so burnt up, that no man goeth there any more. Yea, a man shall not hear one beast cry there. Birds and cattle are all gone from thence.

For there is a lamentable noise heard of Zion: 'O how are we so sore destroyed? O how are we so piteously confounded? We must forsake our own natural country, and we are shot out of our own lodgings.'"

The Egyptians, the Jews, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the shaven Midianites that dwell in the wilderness. For all the Gentiles are uncircumcised in the flesh, but all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart."

Thus sayeth the LORD, "Ye shall not learn after the manner of the Heathen, and ye shall not be afraid for the tokens of heaven: for the Heathen are afraid of such.

Yea all the customs and laws of the Gentiles are nothing but vanity. They hew down a tree in the wood with the hands of the workman, and fashion it with the axe;

They are altogether unlearned and unwise. All their cunning is but vanity:

As for their gods, it may well be said of them, "They are gods, that made neither heaven nor earth: therefore shall they perish from the earth, and from all things under heaven."

Alas, how am I hurt? Alas, how painful are my scourges unto me? For I consider this sorrow by myself, and I must suffer it.

My tabernacle is destroyed, and all my cords are broken. My children are gone from me, and can nowhere be found. Now have I none to spread out my tent, or to set up my hangings.

For the herdsmen have done foolishly, that they have not sought the LORD. Therefore have they dealt unwisely with their cattle, and all are scattered abroad.

And the LORD said unto me, "It is found out, that whole Israel and all these citizens of Jerusalem are gone back.

Then shall the towns of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem go, and call upon their gods, unto whom they made their oblations: but they are not able to help them in time of their trouble.

How long shall the land mourn, and all the herbs of the field perish, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? The cattle and the birds are gone, yet say they, "Tush, God will not destroy us utterly."

Are there any among the gods of the Gentiles, that send rain or give the showers of heaven? Dost not thou it, O LORD our God, in whom we trust? Yea LORD, thou dost all these things."

Shall my heaviness endure forever? Are my plagues then so great, that they may never be healed? Wilt thou be as a water that faileth, and cannot continue?"

For of the children that are born in this place, of their mothers that have borne them, and of their fathers that have begotten them in this land, thus sayeth the LORD:

"Behold therefore, sayeth the LORD, the days are come that it shall no more be said, 'The LORD liveth, which brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.'

O LORD, my strength, my power, and refuge in time of trouble! The Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the world, and say, "Verily our fathers have cleaved unto lies, their Idols are but vain and unprofitable.

How can a man make those, his gods, which are not able to be gods?"

For he shall be as a tree, that is planted by the waterside: which spreadeth out the root unto moistness, whom the heat cannot harm, when it cometh, but his leaves are green. And though there grow but little fruit because of drought yet is he not careful, but he never leaveth off to bring forth fruit.

"May not I do with you, as this Potter doth, O ye house of Israel, sayeth the LORD? Behold, ye house of Israel: ye are in my hand, even as the clay in the Potter's hand.

But my people hath so forgotten me, that they have made sacrifice unto vain gods. And while they followed their own ways they are come out of the high street, and gone into a foot way not used to be trodden.

For the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah are defiled, like as Tophet, because of all the houses; in whose parlors they did sacrifice unto all the host of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto strange gods.'"

he smote Jeremiah, and put him in the stocks, that are by the high gate of Benjamin, in the house of the LORD.

These are the words that the LORD spake unto Jeremiah, what time as king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashhur the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, priest, saying,

And after this, sayeth the LORD, I shall deliver Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his servants, his people - and such as are escaped in the city, from the pestilence, sword, and hunger - into the power of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon: yea into the hands of their enemies; into the hands of those that follow upon their lives, which shall smite them with the sword. They shall not pity them, they shall not spare them, they shall have no mercy upon them.'

Climb up the hill of Lebanon, O thou daughter Zion! Lift up thy voice upon Bashan, cry from all parts: for all thy lovers are destroyed.

Because the land is full of adulterers, wherethrough it is destroyed and mourneth, and the pleasant pastures of the desert are dried up. Yea the way that men take is wicked, and their governance is nothing like the holy word of the LORD.

"For the prophets and the priests themselves are polluted hypocrites, and their wickedness have I found in my house, sayeth the LORD.

I have seen also among the Prophets of Jerusalem foul adultery, and presumptuous lies. They take the most shameful men by the hand, flattering them, so that they cannot return from their wickedness. All these with their citizens are, unto me, as Sodom and as the inhabiters of Gomorrah."

If this people, either any prophet or priest ask thee, and say, 'What is the burden of the LORD?' Thou shalt say unto them, 'What burden? I will cast you from me, sayeth the LORD, because ye yourselves are a burden.'

And like as thou knowest the naughty figs, which may not be eaten they are so evil: Even so will I, sayeth the LORD, let Zedekiah the king of Judah - yea, and all his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem that remain over in this land, and them also that dwell in Egypt - to be vexed and plagued in all kingdoms and lands.

Lo, I will send out, and call for all the people that dwell in the North, sayeth the LORD, and will prepare Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon my servant, and will bring them upon this land, and upon all that dwell therein, and upon all the people that are about them, and will utterly root them out. I will make of them a wilderness, a mockage, and a continual desert.

When the seventy years are expired, I will visit also the wickedness of the king of Babylon and his people sayeth the LORD: yea, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it a perpetual wilderness,

all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; the kings of the Isles that are beyond the sea;

all kings toward the north, whether they be far or nigh, everyone with his neighbours; Yea, and all the kingdoms that are upon the whole earth. The king of Sheshach, said he, shall drink with them also.

I am he that made the earth, the men, and the cattle that are upon the ground, with my great power and outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it pleased me.

neither have I sent them, sayeth the LORD: howbeit they are bold, falsely for to prophesy in my name: that I might the sooner drive you out, and that ye might perish with your preachers.'"

But if they be true Prophets in very deed, and if the word of the LORD be committed unto them, then let them pray the LORD of Hosts that the remnant of the ornaments, which are in the house of the LORD, and remain yet in the house of the king of Judah and at Jerusalem, be not carried to Babylon also.

Yea, I will bring again Jechoniah the son of Jehoiakim the king of Judah himself, with all the prisoners of Judah that are carried unto Babylon even into this place, sayeth the LORD, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon."

For I know what I have devised for you sayeth the LORD. My thoughts are to give you peace, and not trouble, which I give you already; and that ye might have hope again.

Thus hath the LORD spoken concerning the king that sitteth in the stool of David, and all the people that dwell in this city, your brethren that are not gone with you into captivity.

And all the prisoners of Judah that are in Babylon, shall take upon them this term of cursing, and say, 'Now God do unto thee, as he did unto Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;

These are the words that the LORD showed unto Jeremiah, saying,

For what else doth this signify, that I see? Namely, that all strong men smite every man his hand upon his loins, as a woman in the pain of her travail. Who ever saw a man travail with child? Enquire thereafter, and see. Yea, all their faces are marvelous pale.

Therefore thus sayeth the LORD: Thy bruisings are perilous, and thy wounds ready to cast thee into sickness.

Behold, I will bring them again from out of the north land, and gather them from the ends of the world, with the blind and lame that are among them, with the women that be great with child, and such as be also delivered: and the company of them that come again, shall be great.

Then shall it no more be said, 'The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'

Behold, there are bulwarks made now against the city, to take it: and it shall be won of the Chaldeans that besiege it with sword, with hunger and death. And look, what thou hast spoken, that same shall come upon them. For lo, all things are present unto thee:

Yea, land shall be bought for money, and evidences made thereupon and sealed before witnesses in the country of Benjamin, and round about Jerusalem: in the cities of Judah; in the cities that are upon the mountains; and in them that lie beneath; yea, and in the cities that are in the desert. For I will bring their prisoners hither again, sayeth the LORD.'"

These are the words which the LORD spake unto Jeremiah, what time as Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and all his Hosts, out of all the kingdoms that were under his power, and all his people, fought against Jerusalem, and all the cities thereof.

These are the words that the LORD spake unto Jeremiah the prophet, when Zedekiah was agreed with all the people at Jerusalem, that there should be proclaimed a liberty:

'When seven years are out, every man shall let his bought servant, a Hebrew go free, if he have served him six years.' But your fathers obeyed me not and hearkened not unto me.

The words which the LORD spake unto Jeremiah, in the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, are these:

The words which Jonadab the son of Rechab commanded his sons, that they should drink no wine, are fast and surely kept: for unto this day they drink no wine but obey their father's commandment. But as for me, I have stood up early, I have spoken unto you, and given you earnest warning: and yet have ye not been obedient unto me.

Where are your prophets which have prophesied unto you, and said that the king of Babylon should not come against you and this land?

And Zedekiah said unto Jeremiah, "I am afraid for the Jews, that are fled unto the Chaldeans, lest I come in their hands, and so they to have me in derision."

Behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall go out to the king of Babylon's princes. For they think, that thou art deceived: and that the men in whom thou didst put thy trust, have gotten thee under, and set thy feet fast in the mire, and gone their way from thee.

Then said Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Johanan the son of Kareah, "Thou shalt not do it, for they are but lies, that men say of Ishmael."

Thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts the God of Israel, "Ye have seen all the misery that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; so that this day they are desolate, and no man dwelling therein:

Yet are ye not sorry this day. Ye fear not, neither walk ye in my law and my commandments, that I have given unto you and your forefathers.

So that none of the remnant of Judah, which are gone to dwell in Egypt shall be left to come again into the land of Judah although they think to come thither again, and to dwell there. For none shall come again, but such as are fled away."